My Philosophy of Language

Learning a foreign language is a lot like learning to play a musical instrument.  First students have to learn the basics and techniques, and after a while, they begin putting together the little things they’ve learned and create a little song, or sentence.  Once they have memorized a few little phrases, they can start applying them in certain, very predictable situations.  In the first and second year of language learning, that is mostly what they do.  They are quite capable of “spewing forth” chunks of language that sound very “fluent”, but in reality, they are just memorized “chunks” that have been practiced and practiced until they can be pronounced at the opportune time.  That’s about where average students should be at the end of the second year of a foreign language, putting together short, memorized phrases in very familiar settings. 

In third year, students begin learning more advanced structures and, very much like levels one and two, start the “plug and chug” method with them.  However, to truly progress, students must move beyond the plug and chug to the “go and show” level.  The normal, everyday level three student will only sometimes achieve the creating level of “go and show”, and will almost always fall back and rely on memorized chunks of language.  Although students are exposed to advanced structures, tenses and vocabulary, an average student will not truly be able to create with them with any level of success on a regular basis. 

By the time the average student hits level four, he is able to maintain short, predictable conversations on very basic familiar topics, like family, school and preferences.  The language switch often flips on for students during their fourth year of study.  They vacillate between reliance on familiar phrases and venturing out with higher level structures, syntax and ideas.  Self expression becomes more attainable, although grammatically, errors will occur often.  The typical student at this level is just starting to express himself in the present and the past, but beyond that, their speech becomes a bit difficult to understand for those who are not used to hearing non-native speakers.

In the fifth year of language, students have been taught the basics and the high frequency advanced structures.  Most students should be able to manipulate the language well enough in the present and past to make themselves understood and to make their basic needs known to a native speaker.  They should be able to create in the language on most familiar topics and are beginning to venture into the outside world, talking about things beyond their own surroundings.  They should also begin to use some of the more advanced structures that are extremely common without too much thought.  Like level four students, they will make errors, but only when attempting to express difficult concepts or when using more advanced concepts.

Why do I write this, you might be asking yourself?  Well, because I think it is important to understand the nature of language learning (language acquisition) and to be realistic in goal setting.  Please note that each of these descriptions discusses the “average” student.  What I have described above would be the expectations of all students in my class.  My goal is to help each student achieve the highest possible level of language, depending on how hard he wants to work and his natural abilities in the language.  The average student should receive the average grade:  a C.  C’s are not failing.  C’s are not bad.  C’s ARE average.  Average students should and will “meet expectations”.  Students who “exceed expectations” perform at a level ABOVE the expectations.  While all students have the opportunity to exceed and succeed in foreign language study, performance in the language is still the main goal.  Student performance is mainly evaluated in the areas of reading, listening, writing, speaking and cultural ‘awareness’, as outlined above.  Each student will progress at varying degrees throughout each level.  What is most important evaluation, however, is the one that shows how each student FINISHES the semester!